esa

On Jan. 8, 2018, the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured rare snowfall in northwest Algeria, on the edge of the Sahara desert—only the third time in nearly 40 years that this part of the desert has seen snow.

Scientists are using satellite data to monitor the drought that has gripped Italy in 2017. Wildfires, water scarcity and billions of euros worth of damage to agriculture are just some of the effects of this summer’s drought—not to mention the relentless heat.

On Aug. 2, 2017, Arianespace launched a Vega rocket carrying two Earth-observation satellites for Italy, France and Israel. It took 97 minutes to deliver the Optsat-3000 and Venμs satellites into their planned orbits.